Of Dragons and Foxes
by Powtown
Summary: BoF IV - What if it wasn't Nina who stopped Ryu, but Ursula instead? Follows game-story...with some slight tweaking.
1. Of Dragons and Foxes

**Prologue: Struck blind by justice, he trips. Struck dumb by injustice, she sinks. Somehow, though, they never seemed to fall together. Till now.**

****************************************************Dragoon's Saevio*********************************************************

**The discomforts of stretching and distorting his mutilated body disappeared in an instant and in the next moment, power began to coarse steadily through his body...Rasso would pay.**

**Ryu could barely recognise his friends from his foes. However, he did restrain himself from nearing where he knew they laid.**

**Although it washed away all his pain and sadness, it broke all his restrictions to himself as well and drove him out of his mind at the same time.**

**He saw no qualms in setting his inner beast free, they were deserving in every way of his hatred and rage. Those mortals whom killed their own kin.**

**He let his mind shattered under the immense spikes of pure energy. Leaving behind fragments of sanity to search and destroy his targets whom incurred his wrath.**

* * *

**Whilst raising to his feet and silently appraising his new-found strength which continued to grow by the seconds, he felt his innate magical circuits collapsing on its own.**

**He felt it, his body conforming to the needs of wielding power which belonged only to gods.**

**His blue hair grew silver-white, unruly and coarse, whilst his arms and legs were covered with vermilion scale-like sheathings.**

**The transformation completed with runic markings over his entire body and a slender tail which lashed into the air, creating eddies in the air current.**

**Instinctively, he concentrated his raging powers and forced it back to the core of his very soul.**

* * *

**He felt it, due to his incompleteness, his own power gnawing at his soul to attain release from a container too small.**

**But the consequences were of no importance at this point.**

**Wishing to carry out revenge in a most befitting manner, he drew upon the negative emotions from all that were around and decide to use it against them.**

**Vengeance awaits its sweet deliverance.**

* * *

**The soldiers panicked, unsure of this unprecedented development and what it would mean for them.**

**As the darkness collected around the dragon, they formed tendrils of shadows, wrapping and statically shrouding his entire body like a phantasm.**

**Ryu paid no heed to the encroachment of the miasmal forces as it sought to merge with him, seemingly having taken a liking towards him, rather, his body. **

**Wincing as several armour piercing rounds tore through his chest, the pain subsided as his body raced to regenerate from the wounds caused by the attack.**

* * *

**The half-god turn callously to his aggressors, displeased at their impudent behaviour of pointing those flintlocks at his way.**

**The musketeers aimed once more, as to bring down Ryu as they had with his friends.**

**'A futile endeavour', he thought as the shadows severed their hands holding the guns at the simple flick of his fingers.**

**He wondered, is the god they pray to when in distress, him? It certainly did not feel so.**

**He did not feel at all the need to answer their prayers, empty words and promises.**

* * *

**Are they still unconvinced of his powers after the defeat of that abomination Rasso summoned?**

**A familiar voice in his head spoke, merging with his consciousness, he felt it, this presence, this far, slumbering yet what he fought off since he came to be.**

**'They are mortals. Were we to attempt to understand their mind, we should spend an eternity. There be more pressing matters to attend to.'**

**He stared at them, those who, in all their ignorance stood unperturbed in the presence of a god.**

* * *

**Ryu peered within each of soldier's soul that stood in front of him.**

**He saw none with guilt in their mind, rather hypocrisy arising from incomprehensible fears and personal desires.**

**Filthy souls corrupted by disillusioned accomplishments.**

**They would do all in their power to achieve their goals.**

* * *

**'Gula, Fornicatio, Avaritia, Tristitia, Ira, Acedia, Vanagloria, Superbia.'**

**They lacked none of the seven sins.**

**Disgusted at their warped visions of glory and fame through such underhanded measures, he wondered if he was wrong after all.**

**That it was too late for any salvation for humans, their tainted souls.**

* * *

**Ryu summoned his shade to himself with a thought.**

**With his canines, he bit into his thumb, drawing forth dark red blood from his wounds which he allowed to fall to the ground.**

**Sentient, the shade submissively awaited its meal as the puddle slowly spread out, carmine tints showing through the barren soil.**

**Feasting upon the sanguine fluids and developing with the nourishment from the blood of a god, it underwent hypertrophy.**

**Whilst it fed, it grew into greater monstrosity, countless bloodshot eyes and mouths with razor-sharp teeth showed on the otherwise plain pitch-black monsters.**

* * *

**Finishing its meal, it struck at Ryu, demanding more sustenance, namely the blood of Ryu's it so craved.**

**Ryu indifferently swept its claw-like appendages back towards the shade and compressed its body of smothering black to a warping mass of darkness into his palm.**

**Screeching and writhing, attempting to escape from its imprisonment, Ryu did not retaliate towards it, rather, slowly loosened it from his grip.**

**Intelligent by design, the creature quickly understood the gap of power between itself and its master.**

**As it calmed with ominous silence from Ryu, it fell back onto the ground, corroding the earth and defiling the soil, tainting it black and forming a puddle at Ryu's feet.**

* * *

**At the sight of such action with no malice directed to them, a majority of the soldiers relaxed.**

**A vanguard soldier heaved a sigh of relief, as his head was dislodged from the rest of his body.**

**Just as he realized, he viewed his gaping neck wound spurt blood like a fountain in to the air.**

**A taut piece of skin was all that was left of the connection between his uppermost part of his body and the rest.**

* * *

**His eyes widened with fright, staring at the blades of shadows which retreated from him.**

**Then his pupils faded to silence as death carried him away.**

**His face carried a simple expression, surprise.**

**He would have appreciated his fate, when he learnt of the manner of which the rest of his companions would died in.**

* * *

**Numerous others around the soldier aforementioned had not the luxury of knowledge to what had caused their untimely demise.**

**Sliced apart in various fashions were the rest of the infantry units around him.**

**Some cut across their waists and left to a gruelling death and others dissevered into perfect halves head to toe, sending them to their afterlife swiftly.**

**Yet, such was the tenacity of mortals, for they remained alive.**

* * *

**Despite the cleaving of their vital organs and missing their limbs, several crawled to the feet of their comrades.**

**And were kicked away, like trash or a carrier of some unknown plague.**

**Once sworn to brotherhood, few bothered acknowledged their closest friends and many more ignored them and their pitiful cries.**

**They would too, witness the transience of the bonds forged, that regardless of its strength, it would crumble with time.**

* * *

**The soldiers stanced themselves nervously against the dragon, putting on a façade of preparation towards him, in hopes of deterring him from taking their lives.**

**Ryu smiled, though his smile carried no emotion, like a curved line drawn onto the face of a puppet.**

**Massive amounts of dark matter began spewed forth from the mass of darkness at Ryu's feet and shot into every soldier within range.**

**There was no time to react, not with the distance in between them, nor did the speed of the projectiles allow them.**

* * *

**A soldier dully patted his body, checking for any fatal wounds, and finding none, began to chuckle aloud.**

**Then one of them gave out a blood-curdling scream, followed by others.**

**The few soldiers jerked their head up and screamed of untold horrors.**

**As they turned, a gruesome sight, multiple faces contorted beyond recognition, incoherently pleading for help.**

**Their bodies dissolving, like candle wax from a flame.**

* * *

**The remaining soldiers instantly backed away from the rest, and determined them a lost cause.**

**Already, most of them were paralysed with fear, at the sight of such powers.**

**And more precisely, their fate as one who had already been hit by that attack.**

**One particular soldier began to lose his grip on reality, at the sight of such imminent fate that awaited him.**

**In his frenzy, he began to randomly fire all his firearms, at both Ryu and his allies in the way.**

* * *

**Ryu rose his hand ponderously, and shielded himself from the mindless assault.**

**The bullets ricocheting off the barrier and into the unlucky soldiers or the driving into the ground.**

**He knew, the selfish mortals would do all in their power as to live on.**

**Leaving himself wide open, he taunted them to carry out their brutal onslaught.**

* * *

**A couple of soldiers began their charge first.**

**Poised to throw him off balance with their lances.**

**As they thrust their sharpened pikes at his chest, Ryu, with a twisted sense of humour at this point, produced wounds where they had hoped to inflict on him.**

**Two rods of shadows piercing their being from within, regardless of the flimsy organs and brittle bones in their way.**

**"Ah...Arghhh!!!!", they gasped in unison, then screamed in terror as they witnessed their bodies slowly deteriorating state as the foreign structures welded to their flesh and ate them whole.**

* * *

**Intrigued at first, Ryu's interest in the hysterical soldiers declined after their repetitive actions that were all too...mortal.**

**Now planning to entertain himself with the rest of the company who he had cursed with death, he raised his eyebrows when he realised none of them were left.**

**Viscous mixtures of flesh and bones rippling with the slightest signs of life, hearts and lungs still functioning while exposed to the elements.**

**When Ryu recalled himself setting the spell to activate in a sequence one after another, he regretted.**

**Not torturing them more, when they could still feel...nonetheless, they suffered much...but barely enough to satisfy him.**

* * *

**Ryu rescinded his shadow familiars and reduced it to a seal beneath his feet, which crawled off the ground and up his body like a slithering snake.**

**It covered Ryu with a cryptic tattoo throughout back and slightly on his torso and limbs.**

**Diving into the midst of the clustering enemies, he began to rend them apart one by one.**

**Dismembered corpses began to litter the ground.**

* * *

**At the command of Rasso, the remaining troops now regathered and formed a defensive formation around him.**

**All the troops attacked as he strolled into their midst, first assured of their numerical superiority, then quickly demoralized when they realised their spear-tips simply could not pierce him.**

**Mutilated bodies flung off the cliffs and down the ravines without any concern over their actual state, dead or alive.**

**Often without a limb or head, innards spilled with every strike.**

**The ranks of the soldiers thinning by the seconds, the corpses piling up, the screams for retreat and orisons quickly squashed.**

* * *

**All the while, the dragon avoided causing any harm to the man who was the centre of all this chaos.**

**He took care to isolate him, that is, Captain Rasso. To save him for last.**

**Soon he would be done, and he would, with pleasure, deal with this insolent man whom challenged a god.**

**And thought himself capable to achieve victory.**

* * *

**Alas, the last soldier whom was amongst the first platoons to reach this place, realised his futile endeavour, he threw his gun and ran the other way.**

**As he ran, he felt his whole being lifted off the land.**

**Sure enough, his body was hovering in the air and Ryu slowly paced forth, his eyes now masked by his silver-white hair drenched in the crimson fluids of others.**

**Gripping and twisting the soldier's flailing arm as he struggled to run, he tore it off the pitiful man, bathing in the shower of blood that came from the wound.**

* * *

**'Was this all they had?', he had almost broke out laughing at their pathetic state now.**

**But he could not, some part of his still restraining him, rendering him incapable to express himself so for he knew better.**

**Ryu was perplexed till his darker side's remnants of consciousness lying dormant with his power permeated his thoughts and coerced out his in-hesitance.**

**'So, this was how prepared they were to face a god.'**

**Now free of distractions, Ryu turned to his main target.**

* * *

**Ryu awaited his final prey's pitiful lies and pleas...when he stalked him whilst he crawled on the ground.**

**He would beg for mercy like the villagers did, and suffer a hundred-fold what they had all endured.**

**The remaining terrified troops who arrived late threw down their weapons and fled the scene, not knowing he had marked them with a timed detonation spell.**

**Moments later, the sound of explosions at the far ends of the mountain and the smell of burning corpses filled the air.**

* * *

**A vicious smirk overtook the indifferent expression on his face.**

**'Humans are selfish, foolish and perfidious.'**

**'Unworthy of the gift of life.'**

**How true. How he wished it was not so.**

* * *

**A few of his companions instinctively distanced themselves, also dragging with them the few still unconscious in tow, from the rampaging half-god.**

**Nina began to pull herself up despite her injuries and shouted for Ryu to stop, all the while trying to calm him down, but her words could not reach him.**

**"Stop it!!! Ryu, please...please stop. Its alright now...so you can stop too, everything is...alright." Nina's words slowly fell to a muttering pace as she realised what she was saying.**

**'Who was she lying to? Everything was alright?'**

**Deep down, she wanted to see those soldiers tormented, and she knew it, the dark feelings within her, for making her sister, Elina suffer so, for killing the villagers of Chek.**

* * *

**Ryu paused at her voice, then sensing her thoughts, with it, her true feelings, simply paused entirely.**

**His smirk grew into a murderous grin, his eyes filled with dissent towards humanity.**

**The furore of the dragon began grow once more, to proportions beyond words.**

* * *

**It was as if he took in the all negativity in the vicinity, and took it all into himself.**

**Becoming a realisation of divine punishment one cannot deny.**

**Then suddenly, Ryu let loose a burst maniacal laughter, grabbing onto his face whilst cachinnating.**

**As Ryu grew silent, he limply continued onwards to Rasso.**

* * *

**Nina cringed at this madness...and for the first time, was afraid of Ryu.**

**For the first time, she saw this insurmountable barrier between the mortals and gods crystal clear.**

**They were Endless, while themselves were fleeting sentiments to them.**

**"Ryu, you are still Ryu, right?" Nina questioned no one in particular, as she found herself backing away from him.**

**She rejected this, what he came to be.**

* * *

**Before she could fight this involuntary action though, Cray had protectively drawn her back from the attacking range of Ryu.**

**Rationally, it was the wisest thing to do, waiting for the rage of the god to wear down itself before attempting to stabilize Ryu.**

**Then again, it was unfair to praise him as calm or experienced, for the fact that fear was the main motivational factor for his actions.**

**Their entire party was in no condition to fight, least of all take on a raging god.**

**For he knew that, by any chance, should Ryu choose to eliminate the impeding obstacles to his vengeance, they would be a lost cause.**

* * *

**Rasso laid on the ground, legs trembling, teeth chattering and body quivering.**

**The uniform of his which he was so proud of, covered in dirt and stained by blood.**

**Rasso could only repetitively mouth the words ' Help me '.**

**He could not even bring forth his own voice, let alone run away, as dread consumed him whole.**

**His mind was in disarray, twelve platoons lost in an instant, reinforcements crushed by the cowardly doomed that ran to them.**

**All was lost.**

* * *

**Ursula sat and stared, in disbelief, at the sheer power of one called a god.**

**She could not deny herself the fear that now gripped her entire being.**

**This was the power that unified the world and created the Empire.**

**This would be the power to destroy the Empire too, even to annihilate the last vestiges of mankind, should the wielder feel the need to do so.**

* * *

**Cursing and whimpering, he pushed his body up with his arms.**

**Throwing a dismembered arm at his way, Rasso pushed Ryu aside and ran, desperate to escape. Immediately, though, his fate was sealed.**

**The runes formed and dissolved into the core of his being.**

**He ran.**

**His eyes, nose and ears began to bleed.**

**He staggered.**

**Now his entire face was covered in the crimson fluids, the blood bubbling through his nostrils and his mouth as he tried to breath.**

**He knelt.**

**His eyes pleading, conveying the horrors of death and his wish to live.**

**And he fell.**

**His body irresponsive.**


	2. What then of Mortals?

*******************************************Of Extraho quod Vulpes volpes.************************************************

**Ryu stepped forward to the body which pulsed every now and then, spilling blood forth each convulsion.**

**He tilted his head, as if amused by his grand performance to his end.**

**Then, with a snap of his fingers, Rasso's body was set ablaze in an indigo flame.**

**His screams drove chills into all that were present to it.**

**And it died down, slowly and but surely.**

* * *

**' Not yet. '**

**That was not enough to atone your sins.**

**Ryu stabbed the flaming corpse with his bare claws, drawing out with it, a mass of dark shrouds.**

**It wailed in pain, as if tortured by the grasp of the dragon's claws.**

**And Ryu scrutinized the object in great detail, then dealt a soft, tentative blow against it with his other claw.**

**Then he worked to crush it, clenching his fist holding the Rasso's soul.**

* * *

**"Thou wilt suffer the pain of the ones you murdereth.", he spoke all the while, in such antiquated manner one would think of him to be ancient.**

**The soul squirmed in vain, beginning to shrink in size as it wore against this plane where it did not belong.**

**"Do hast known of the consequences of going against a god, didst thou not?", his voice was not his own, rather, it was similar to Fou-Lu's.**

**Its cries lessened each moment, as it began to break down into nothingness.**

**"Thou shalt never ascend, nor descend. What hast thou, shall be eternal emptiness." condemned Ryu, before he dealt the finishing blow.**

**And the soul collapsed, Ryu finally satisfied, turned around.**

* * *

**Now no longer preoccupied with the soldiers, Ryu glanced across this scene of devastation he created.**

**Bodies decorated the landscape, the stench of burning corpses from the mountain-sides filled the air.**

**In the corner of his eye, his companions, though heavily injured, stanced for combat.**

**"...Wouldst thou fight a god?"**

* * *

**There was no reply, they merely stood, slightly straighter and more determined to stop him after his cruel performance.**

**"Thou dost not ken the power of that which you wish to destroy. A dragon 'tis force of nature unto itself. Thou mayest as well seek to fight a volcano or the very earth itself!"**

**No logic reached their ears, they witnessed his strength, but they too, witnessed his change into something darker and now could not stand by and watch.**

**"Dragons doth give birth to thy kind, grant thee life, and verily taketh it away. They are to thee as thou art to an insect. In thy terms, a god."**

**They would not step back, they would not let him be.**

* * *

**Sighing, he raised his hand and swung an arc towards the skies.**

**Dark clouds circled and blackened the midday skies with ease, bolts of lightning struck down on the barren sands around them.**

**Nina screamed, whilst the seasoned warriors prepared for an all-out confrontation.**

**"Tis as I thought... It is not the nature of mortals to change their ways..."**

**' How foolish. '**

* * *

**A shot grazed his cheek, breaking off his focus on his few companion, allies till now.**

**Ursula had broke out of the trance of watching the petrifying prowess of this unleashed beast.**

**What she could not stop was her body's screaming at herself, to get away from that monster.**

**Her arms shook visibly, as she gripped onto her pistol, whilst her body stood rooted to the ground.**

**She fired several shots in succession, but none of which managed to hit the mark with the barrier Ryu still had.**

* * *

**Ryu slowly paced towards the panic-stricken Kitsune, her fingers pulling the trigger every now and then.**

**Her pistol clacked against the empty barrel, nonchalantly stating it was empty.**

**She threw the pistol aside and slid a pair of dagger into her palms.**

**She would not go down without a fight.**

**And she dived, all the while letting out some sort of war-cry.**

* * *

**He smirked, and time seemed to stop for her.**

**'This is what they call the moment before you die, huh? What a pointless death.'**

**'This wasn't supposed to be like this, none of it was.'**

* * *

**Ryu side-stepped this desperado attack, poised to counter with a strike to pierce her heart.**

**Ursula awaited the fatal blow when her strike failed to connect.**

* * *

**By some unseen, twisted force of fate, Ursula, with all her balance and agility, fell against the halfling.**

**And for some unknown reason, their minds interlocked.**

**Lifestreams, flowing and meeting, then parting. **

**Almost a mirage, intangible and incomprehensible.**

**Yet deep within, one could feel a sense of nostalgia.**

**One particular trickle Ursula felt for, was dragged into one larger than itself, and there stood him.**

**The Yorae Dragon.**

* * *

**Her thoughts, feelings, wishes flowed through Ryu's mind, and he came to understand how she was against Rasso's savage methods.**

**He allowed her mind's content to sift into his, assimilating those memories she could not hold on to.**

**His mind was seemed empty, not that it did not contain anything, but his was immensely greater compared to that of hers, which was now part of his.**

**Her flow of life slid into his and she also, involuntarily swept up and took in some of his.**

* * *

**Ursula came to understand the pain each time he took a life of a mortal.**

**He treasured humans, the very reason he was summoned here.**

**For they had hopes, wishes and hearts that were magnificent to him.**

**And they, by their acts, betrayed him. **

* * *

**The exchange strangely calmed Ryu's mind.**

**His body returning to its un-invoked state.**

**His mind slowly reforming back to stability.**

* * *

**The complexities of mortals continued to astound him.**

**Ursula, that woman.**

**Perhaps, humanity was not lost entirely to their folly.**

* * *

**It seem the people of the Empire were divided in their sympathies.**

**There was, and still remain, the ones worthy.**

**He was glad.**

* * *

**Both their eyes meeting, before closing.**

_**And the pair collapsed in a messy heap.**_


	3. The NewFound Feelings

**Crescendo: I seeth now for the first time through thy eyes. The mortals are indeed weak..Foolish...Verily, a collection of contradictions...And yet...They art magnificent.**

************************************************Fas, Res, Vulpes volpes.****************************************************

**The skies were warped, still disturbed by the energies that were but a moment ago still running wild.**

**The throbbing of the large bruise on her back did not allow her to remain unconscious.**

**She recognised this place, the outline of Kyojin could be seen across this cloudless mountain scenery, but they still were leagues away from it.**

**She was not surprised that she was not allowed to roam free, being bound to a wooden post, she scoped her surroundings and potential enemies carefully.**

**Across the camp-fire, a blue-haired young man still slept.**

* * *

**She wondered if this was all a dream, a bad dream...**

**If so, she wanted to wake up, now.**

**Unable to do so, nor break free from the ropes around her, she decided to sleep.**

**She would find out more of this mysterious man and their motives.**

**But now, she can do nothing, but to rest herself properly.**

**~~oOo~~**

**"You're Ryu, aren't you? I am Ursula, of the Fou Imperial Army.", she spoke, but did not.**

***Everything was as if saw from a third person's point of view, if this was a dream, it was not hers.***

**"We know you are the Yorae Dragon. You will come with us--now." she had commanded.**

**"What's happened to the villagers!? What have you done with them!?" the Woren brute vehemently questioned.**

**"Did you torture them to find out about us!? Huh!? I swear, if you've harmed even one of them, I'll..."**

* * *

**His empty threats did not produced much effect save confusion for her.**

**"What are you talking about?", she asked, just to clear up this matter.**

**She didn't like being in the dark.**

**"Don't play games with us! Just look at what you did to Ershin! That tells me all I need to know about you!"**

**'Who would know who was this Ershin?', she scowled in her mind, things were getting far too complicated.**

**"Please...Listen to me. If you follow this trail, there's an abandoned village. That's where most of the people from Chek are hiding.", the Wyndian spoke, almost begging for her to allow it.**

**"Just let us go there and make sure they're all right! Please!"**

**If she knew, she would never have let them go...no, she would have, even more so...**

**~~oOo~~**

**"Ursula!? I don't believe it! The Yorae Dragon!", Rasso so triumphantly declared when he saw Ryu led by Ursula.**

**He almost ran to meet the dragon face to face, his demeaning posture dislikeable as always.**

**"You were able to get away from me, but not Ursula, eh little dragon?", sneered the provocative mortal.**

**"What are you doing here, Captain Rasso?", Ursula questioned, fearing what they had said was true.**

**"Hoooo, What's that tone I hear in your voice, Captain Ursula ma'am? Feeling a little superior because we found the dragon first, are we?", he challenged, obviously ignorant toward authority.**

**"What am I doing here? Isn't it obvious? Looking for the dragon - as per orders!", the man announced, loud and clearly.**

* * *

**The foreboding feelings did not dissipate, rather, they built up when she saw him acting so...dis-pleasingly.**

**"I have been told that there are people somewhere here in these ruins...Have you seen them?", Ursula enquired, with caution from alerting him of her knowledge of the villagers.**

**"Well, gee, let me think...", Rasso put on a thinking look, gesturing to and fro the village and where he came through.**

**A child staggers by and collapses behind Rasso, just as he mouthed the words 'No'.**

**She rushed to the child's aid, witnessing brutal wounds and bruises all over his body.**

**And she shook with rage.**

* * *

**"I just asked them where I might find the dragon.", he lied, so ever plainly.**

**"You would use force against innocent women and children!?", Ursula found herself screaming at that man without knowing it.**

**And Rasso gave a disconcerting wave with his hand.**

**"What is it to you if I do? They don't matter... Their lives mean nothing.", he shrugged, and continued to examine the dragon who was too, visibly enraged.**

***She wondered, were the feelings she felt before his...?***

* * *

**"You're wrong.", Nina disagreed.**

**"Every life is important! Every life has meaning. How can you say such a thing!?", she began to berate Rasso for his lack of recognition to the greatness of life.**

**"Ha ha ha! How touching, Princess. How compassionate, how caring...How dross. Who are you to talk to me in such a way? Just because you got lucky once, don't think you can talk down to me like that.", Rasso laughed, **

**Ryu stood forward and drew out his sword, gesturing Nina to stand back.**

**"Ooohhh, look at the scary dragon! Come on, boy...Don't be afraid--show me what you can do.", Rasso further roused the angered god.**

**"What are you doing!? Our orders are to find the dragon and return with him to the Empire!", Ursula interceded, though she clearly disagreed with Rasso's methods.**

**"You don't have to remind me what our orders are! They don't say he has to be in one piece, though. I figure we can make him a little more...cooperative, if you know what I mean!", Rasso quipped and eagerly swept Ursula aside with an earth spell, ramming her into a pillar of granite as he swerved back to face Ryu.**

**Whilst they stared in a deadlock, a warrior spirit descended from the skies.**

**"Come now--let's settle our score. I don't like losing...Ymechaf!"**

**~~oOo~~**

**And she woke up, finding Ryu untying her restraints.**

**"What are you..."**

**Ryu silenced her with a finger to her lip, which she swiped off immediately with her left hand.**

**"I think you know.", his voice with a strange accent, combined along a mournful tone.**

**Ursula simply found herself at a loss for words.**

**"That dream, was yours...?"**

**Ryu simply nodded, and rising up, he tread carefully to avoid his companions sleeping bags on his way to his resting spot and returned to sleep.**

**"Sorry."**

* * *

**He emanated a sadness she could not comprehend.**

**It was as if he was grieving for those that passed away.**

**Such was the pervasion of the gloom around him that she too felt depressed.**

**And he simply left her, sitting there, free to decide her own fate.**

* * *

**Why she did not escape then, she did not know.**

**But now that she found herself willingly staying with them, she found herself asking what was she doing, what would she hope to accomplish.**

**Then she overheard a conversation...she felt it wrong to eavesdrop, but as soon as she heard Ryu's name, she changed her mind.**

**"How is Ryu?", Cray tentatively queried Nina, his voice a whisper. **

**"He's back to normal. He's sleeping for now.", Nina replied, wary of the sensitive topic over Ryu's rampage.**

**Ursula could not hold back on her curiosity, regarding the dragon's state.**

* * *

**"What are you planning on doing with that dragon? Are you going to use him to go war on the Empire?", she straightforwardly inquired, not hiding the fact she was no longer bound up.**

**"How did you...", the warrior and the princess almost exclaimed when they saw her unbound, and still here.**

**Not allowing that matter to change their subjects, nor to trouble that man...she merely repeated herself.**

**"Are you planning to use him in the war?"**

**"Is that all you Imperial types can think about!? I hate to burst your bubble, but we're not like you...We have no interests in fighting with you...",Cray declared.**

**"Is that so!? I've heard that the only reason there is no permanent truce between us is because Ludia keeps arguing over the details!", argued Ursula, angered at the insults that they were the instigator of the war.**

**"So? Nothing's wrong with that! What about your friend Rasso did, huh!?", Cray retaliated, already he was pounding the ground with his wooden post.**

**"Torturing innocent people... And the way he was chasing after Ryu and baiting him like that, it's no wonder he went berserk!", he finished, allowing what he has said to sink into her mind.**

* * *

**"I don't care what you say... There's no way I'll let the Empire get a hold of a dragon!"**

**"Cray...I've been thinking about what happened...We all saw how Ryu lost control like that. I wonder...Is it because he's not whole? I mean, maybe because of that, he's...I don't know, unstable or something."**

**Once again, Ursula was thrown off by the subject of the conversation.**

**'Not whole? Perhaps he was still in the process of turning into a god? That would explain a lot...'**

**"So maybe if he were to meet with the other Ryu, the one in the Empire...", Nina elaborated, emphasising on the need for Ryu to be complete.**

**'Wait...There's more than one of him?!', Ursula's eyes widened at thoughts of multiple omnipotent beings like him...**

**Ursula refrained from asking though, lest they decide to keep such matters from her once they know of her obliviousness.**

* * *

**"Are you crazy!? Are you saying we should just hand Ryu over to the Empire!?", Cray vehemently protested, the muscles at his neck straining at such efforts.**

**"No, not hand him over...I mean go with him into the Empire ourselves!", Nina quickly clarified, threatened by the Cray's sudden outburst.**

**"Oh...Well...", Cray calmed, and felt apologetic for his lack of control over himself.**

**Ever since he found out about Elina disappearance, he had been teetering from ire to melancholy.**

**He was not surprised his already broken mental state tore up again at such misunderstanding.**

**"We were told that it is Ryu's destiny to meet with his other half, right? If that's true, then why don't we seek him out instead of waiting for him to come to us?"**

**"Besides, if we say we're going to go peacefully, then we won't have to fight with you anymore, will we?", Nina pointed asked, turning toward Ursula.**

* * *

**She was going to touch on the fact Ryu killed over hundreds of Imperial Troops, and a general...but she decided against it, as her curiosity and interest to this matter grew.**

**"Um...Hmmm...", she pretended to ponder on after she made her mind up, and nodded.**

**Cray relented over to Nina's appeals to what appeared to him as a badly conceived plan, stating,"Well...I guess you've got a point. Let's see what the Abbess has to say about this."**

**"But don't even think about trying anything funny, OK, girl?"**

**"The name is Ursula.", she spat, indignant of such treatment from him, like he was superior to her.**

* * *

**And thus they ended their conversation, trivial matters put aside.**

**Yet, this was just the beginning of what was to come.**

**A certain dragon had been listening, silently by the camp-fire whilst pretending to be asleep.**

* * *

**'T'would appear that regardless of mine own desire, I affect the lives of innocents, pulling them along with me as if caught up in some mighty river's current...'**

**'Verily, a river...For is it not the nature of the Endless to shape the course of the world itself?', Ryu lamented, then shook away the thought that came so unnaturally.**

**From another him that laughed at the very same statement.**

**He did not think of everything his fault, nor did he blame it all on fate.**

**Neither were the mortals wrong, for they were created so...from the start anyway.**

**The night was long, nobody really slept, nobody could, with such weight, that of the entire world was at stake.**

* * *

**Hours crawled by till dawn broke.**

**By some unspoken rule, nothing was to make a single sound, and nothing did, as if the penalties for doing so were beyond imagination.**

**The roosters dared not to crow, nor did the cicadas make a single cry.**

**Even the sparrows flew across those bright skies once tainted red, muted.**

**Yet they were completely oblivious to the massacre that happened here but yesterday.**

* * *

**Cray and Scais rose first...and swiftly went on to prepare for their journey back to Chek.**

**Nina and Deis followed suit, after they completed their daily ritual proffering themselves to take on their mundane state.**

**However, Ursula did not even rest that night, as she kept watch over Ryu whom she was still wary of.**

**Of course, Ryu had not rested either, having been sitting by the camp-fire after everyone were in their beds, watching it flicker and fade through the passage of the night.**

**No voice was heard, nor were words exchanged, lest they speak of what happen the day before.**

* * *

**Ursula felt it, the sunken feelings that they so freely effused now.**

**This false peace which brought forth greater condemnation than outright castigation.**

**Truly, it was the atmosphere one would expect, at an execution or perhaps the sacrificial chamber of the Carronade, maybe worse.**

**It seems that man would not ever be treated the same by them ever again.**

* * *

**'Why should she concern herself with the fate of the dragon...?'**

**Unable to answer her own question, she felt unusually emotional.**

**She fought to hold her own and remain neutral in her views and rationally isolate the newly discovered feelings.**

**Ursula was not accustomed towards the imparted sensitivity, having been brought up with few she could even call friends.**

* * *

_**She continued her vigil over the dragon, following him silently, as he silently trudged off towards the backs of his companions.**_


	4. Subtle Feelings

*******************************************************Subtle Feelings.********************************************************

**Ryu led the party, like he always did, yet, things have never felt more different.**

**This gap which had been insignificant now stood between them and appeared to widen as they continued their travel.**

**Leading them to their goal, to save her sister, to find his lover Elina, to discover oneself, to find a way back to the world they were from, to save the world.**

**He knew that it would all end when they reached it.**

**He knew but blindly led on.**

* * *

**  
Those visions, those of Fou-Lu's past, marred with hatred and misery, he knew how this would end...but still.**

**This inevitable end, would it serve any purpose?**

**What was his purpose in the first place?**

**He knew that his kind had called him the Yorae Dragon, the one whose role that has not been decided.**

**He hoped that when the time came, he would carry that decision out on his own.**

* * *

**  
Ryu could hear light coughs coming from the back, ones he recognized from Nina.**

**He supposed the long journey from the Sanctuary would carry out its toll on them mortals.**

**These slight differences have never failed to escape him, despite his purposeful façade of ignorance.**

**Resting his back against boulder, he watched them.**

**Able to care for another, perform feats such as helping a stranger for nothing more than simple thanks, yet, the same is capable of brutally murdering another in the name of peace and order.

* * *

**

**~~oOo~~

* * *

**

**"So...You intend to go to the Empire after all.", the Abbess frowned and eyed Nina, as if asking her to reconsider.**

**"Yes... I think that maybe the reason Ryu did...what he did is because he's not whole...Because he's divided."**

**"Hmmm...It makes sense...An incomplete god would not have full control of his power. I take it your plan then is to journey to the Empire, and find the other Ryu--the First Emperor, that is--in hope that doing so will give Ryu control over his power. Is that it?", the Abbess's guess hit the mark again.**

**'First Emperor? Are they talking about the God Emperor? Impossible. Fou-Lu, Father of the Empire, may his name be blessed, is dead! He founded the Empire centuries ago! They won't find anything of him except maybe his bones!' Ursula's surprise had not escaped the Abbess.**

**"It is only destiny for them to join where they had part, on the grounds of their summoning, where they, five centuries ago, split. There, the fate of the world shall be decided."**

* * *

**  
Ursula noted how the Abbess had filled in the blanks of which she didn't know so subtly.**

**Unused to following the flow of other's, she walked towards the door, as if to depart.**

* * *

**"I don't really know what you're talking about... And I'm not sure I want to know, but you're asking me to help you get to the Empire, right?"**

**"Yes... So we can find the other Ryu.", Nina confessed, fully knowing that Ursula understood why she was in the position she was in now.**

**"Humph! I don't care why you want to go. My mission is to bring the dragon back to the Empire. And that's what I intend to do! The fact that he wants to go himself simply makes my life, and his, a little easier."**

* * *

**Ursula didn't understand why she would add the fact that his life would be easier, it was as if she was trying to assure them she would not harm him in any way.**

**It felt unnatural to her, even though it came out as well as it did. By the door, Cray awaited while listening onto their conversation.**

* * *

**"Huh? I wouldn't be cool if I were you! Take a look around...you're basically our prisoner!"**

**"Is that so? I don't remember you capturing me. Care to try?", Ursula goaded that brute, ready to use it as an excuse to dispose of him.**

**"...At any rate, with your help, Ursula, it shouldn't be too hard to get to the Empire, right?", Ursula stopped dead in her tracks and then shook her head...and continued on.**

* * *

**As Nina tried to ask Ursula what she meant by that, the Abbess interjected.**

**"I just realized something. We haven't yet told Deis about what's happened. She's probably sleeping somewhere in the village. You should find her and wake her up."**

**Recalling the past events with Ershin and Deis, Nina solemnly nodded.**

**Searching for Rhem, or Deis, as she was currently possessing Rhem's body, she found her laying next to Ershin.**

**"Mmmm...? Oh, it's you. Wait just a minute, OK?"**

* * *

**As a murky substance rose from Rhem and shot back into Ershin, she began to move once more.**

**"There we go. I figured that if I'm going to go with you, it's easier this way. Don't get the wrong idea! It's not because I enjoy being in this armour or anything! I can't go around borrowing that girl's body forever anyway.", Deis spat an excuse out almost instantaneously. **

**"There's not much I can do by myself anyway...I mean, what good's a god without a body, eh? It's up to you, Ryu.", Ryu smiled at Deis, knowing fully well that if she had insisted on doing so, she could use Rhem's body thus releasing many of her abilities and no one could force her to do otherwise.**

**"Well, let's get this show on the road, then! You're going to the Empire, right? We better get down from this mountain then.", Nina giggled and began to hum her signature tune.**

**"W...What ab-b-bout he-her?", Scias pointed towards Rhem who was still laying on the floor.**

**"Don't worry about Rhem. She's just sleeping, that's all. I must have worn her out. Come on, then, let's go!", Deis seemed to be uncomfortable with everyone fully aware of her act out of 'softness'.**

* * *

**Without warning, Ryu strode in front of Ershin and placed his fingers on where her forehead would be, chanting incomprehensible words.**

**"Wait a moment, what on earth are you..."**

**Deis's objections were cut short by another voice.**

**

* * *

**

**"Ershin! Ershin, you've come back! Thank you!", the voice produced in conjunction with Deis's had an off-tune ring to it, making it awkward for Deis to speak when Ershin is doing so.**

**"Oh...You're awake, eh? I decided to stick around with them for a while longer. That means I'll need you again. Hope you don't mind.", Deis finally spoke when Ershin's rambling stopped.**

**"Of course not, Ershin! Ha ha...Ha ha ha ha!", the party moved on as Ershin went into bouts of laughter, in which Deis desperately tried to make herself heard. **

**"What're you laughing for!? I didn't come back because I wanted to!"**

**"......Yes, Ershin. I am just gladdened by your return. Ha ha ha ha ha!"**

* * *

**"Sigh...All right, all right...Enough already. Listen to me--from now on, I want you to call me Deis, OK?"**

**"Yes, Ershin."**

**"What did I just tell you!? Things'll get too confusing if we both use that name. You can have it, all right?"**

**Catching up to Ryu, Deis asked cautiously, "When did you learn that, youngin'?"**

**"Five hundred years ago.", Ryu offered a creepy smile to Deis which sent shivers up her spine.

* * *

  
~~oOo~~

* * *

**

**Mountain Ryft was notorious for its fickle changes of its weather, but this was simply exaggerated.**

**The trees swayed vigorously, almost appearing alive and clinging onto the earth to avoid being swept away by the storm winds.**

**Rhem steadied her hat as she readied the raft which they would use to sail down Mountain Ryft.**

**"Get ready, it isn't going to be a smooth ride with these currents.", Rhem shouted over the blustering winds.**

**While Nina and Ursula sat at in the middle of the raft inside of Ershin, Cray sat at the back of the raft holding on to the anchor as Scias and Ryu handled to steering of the raft.**

**"I'm going to untie the rope now, good luck!!!", Rhem waved her goodbyes to them as they were carried by the rapids downstream.**

**Somehow, she could have sworn hearing a maniacal robot's laughter over the roar of the river.**

**She supposed all she can do now is pray for their success.**

* * *

**Despite avoiding all the huge masses of rocks and debris floating within the current, the raft was visibly in no condition for any more punishment.**

**"Well... At least we were able to make it down the mountain!", Nina's optimistism way of viewing thing was not adopted by anyone else.**

**Ryu shook his hair free from weeds and any grime that could have gotten stuck onto his hair.**

**Nina then began to fumble with her assortment of possessions, pulling out from within a green towel.**

**"Here, Ryu..."**

* * *

**Ursula climbed onto shore, and began to dry herself up in a similar fashion, taking special care to her tail.**

**Appraising the condition of her firearms, Ursula silently cursed the winds which left her gunpowder wet and useless. **

**Nina had shield herself with the towel and stared...then kept the towel away.**

_**She didn't want to be around when Cray...no, Scias got up.**_


	5. Money, Money, Manillo!

**Finale: ****How doth this world appear to thee?** **What dost thou seeth in it? For I can see naught but you in my eyes.**

_  
_**********************************************************************Money, Money, Manillo!**************************************************************************************  
****  
****  
****  
****  
Sweating profusely under the desert sun, Cray struggled to keep his eyes clear from perspiration.**

The rest of the party weren't better off, Nina's wings were already disheveled from all the flapping she did periodically to cool off while Ursula's let her hair down for some reason.****

The road was long...and the chilly night had turn into day without them knowing it.

As the sandy winds picked up, they could only try to abate its aridity by covering themselves with anything that might shield them from it.**  
****  
****

* * *

  
****  
The pebbly tiles of the path, which stretched endlessly before them, wore down their crumbling wall of fortitude.**

Shyde wasn't far away from here, however, not exactly close either.

The desert town had rose in popularity as merchants began to commonly choose it as a place to rest and restock at.

Becoming the connection between Wyndia and Ludia, the town had prospered...and suffered.**  
****  
****

* * *

  
****  
The very walls of this desert border were built to seperate the two nations whose interest had grown apart over time.**

Now once again pulled together by the horns of war...it has become a site where one could easily obtain sandfliers to venture through the vast deserts.

From afar, a blue streamer came into sight. Shyde. Had the ceasefire not been interrupted by the searches the Imperial army were making, it would be bustling with trade.****

"Shyde is where all the merchants with sandfliers go. With a little luck, we should be able to get one there."**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
**** "You're looking for a sandflier?", the Manillo greeted as Cray stepped into the shop, away from the sweltering heat.**

"Yeah, do you sell them?", Cray replied as he prospected the shop. "Well, sure, we've got them, but they're not cheap!"

As the party followed the Manillo to the yard where the sandfliers were held, it became apparent that many had already been bought.

"So, how much would it be?"****

* * *

**"Wha-?!", Cray could not believe his eyes with the figure on the price tag.**

The Manillo merely shrugged and made it clear that it was how they cope with supply and demand.

"You know how everyone has been after one of these to flee to the capital. If you don't have enough money to buy one, you should ask one of the travelling merchants to let you ride on one of theirs."

"If you wait, one should be along soon enough." Leaving the shop's front, Scias spotted a sandflier leaving.

* * *

**"Drat! The 'flier's already leaving!", Cray cursed as he ran to catch the sandflier's attention.**

"You know, it's a simple enough task to stop it, instead of shouting like that.", Ursula mockingly spoke as she raced past and leapt aboard the sandflier.

Scias followed without hesitation, his wide grin only making them doubt the true reason to his in-hesitance of it. First shocked, Cray's panicked face later reaffirmed the party's doubts.

They were going to stop the flier their way. "AHHHH!!! Thieves! Hijac--", the voice was silenced after a gunshot.

* * *

**"Whoa!! Mercy, MERCY!!!" A couple of crew members run past as the party moved towards the sandflier.**

Ryu paused for a moment, the plea for mercy overlapping with those he killed, before he distanced himself from the party slightly.

There was a faucet of guilt that surfaced when he was not drunk with power.

That he had enjoyed killing them at that point of time, and their deaths, to him, was all too insignificant.

* * *

**"What do you zink you are doing, eh?"**

"What do you think?", Ursula replied with an irritated undertone, almost as if she was inconvenienced by him.

Securing the flier, she stepped out of the cabin within, now awaiting the rest to get aboard.

"You...YOU IDIOT! We aren't criminals!" Ursula took a step back almost instinctively from the roaring brute who now had his palm upon his face.

* * *

**Cray was about to apologize to the owner of the flier when the familiar voice made him think otherwise.**

"It would zeem you 'ave a new line of work, yes?", the tied up Manillo sarcastically questioned.

"Marlok!", Nina had exclaimed, though most of those who knew him had repressed part of their memories.

"You go to zee Empire and come back as robbers? Well, at least you are keeping busy, eh?" Cray now gestured desperately as to avoid any conflict with a man like him.

* * *

**Marlok wasn't a powerful warrior of any sort, but as the influential man he was, he could very well impede their journey by a great scale by his whim.**

"We're sorry, Mr. Marlok. We need to get back to Hesperia and we're looking for a sandflier to take us there. Would you be kind enough to give us a ride?" Nina asked in an apologetic and sweet voice, but she barely had any hope that he would.

"If all you want is a sandflier, zere are ways to get zem wizout attacking people, you know.

If you go to Shyde zey sell zem zere, no?" Scratching his head in an awkward pose, Cray replied concerning their plight, "Well...We...Um...We don't have that kind of money." "Ah, I see. I 'ave 'erd zat money is zee root of all evil, but in your case zee opposite seems to be true as well."

* * *

**After untying Marlok, Cray almost immediately beseeched him for help, though Marlok made himself comfortable before he even bothered replying.**

"Please, Marlok...We need your help again. We've got to have a sandflier! We'll do anything you ask...Any job you want!"

Cray didn't expect the day he would be wanting to work under Marlok would come this soon.

"Hmph. What do you zink I am, a charity service? I am a busy Manillo yes? I do not 'ave zee time to be giving you a ride whenever you are needing one!" "Ugh...", Cray let a defeated groan escape his mouth.

* * *

**Ursula gave Cray the 'I told you we should have done it my way' look and stormed out of the interior of the flier obviously angered by Cray's reprimanding.**

"Still...I would not want someone zat I know to become a zief. It would be bad for my reputation, no?", the Manillo spoke with no concern to Ursula's actions.

"So, I will 'elp you buy a sandflier. 'Ow's zat? Ere--take zis." Handing Cray a passbook of some sort with the Manillo emblem atop, Marlok began to excuse himself.

"Wh...What!? You mean it, Mr. Marlok? Thank you!", Nina first quipped ecclesiastically then cringed after Marlok gave her his trademark Manillo smile.

* * *

**"I don't believe it. Who would've thought that greedy old trader would do something like that!?"**

"I know what you mean. Now that we've got money...Wait...How much is it?"

Opening the passbook, Cray's eyes shifted from one side of the passbook to the other and back.

"He...he...uses...TWO lines each deposit?!"**  
****  
**** ~~oOo~~****  
****  
Walking on the outskirts of Shyde, Ursula made it a point to herself to cool her head.**

No one in the **entire Capital would have dared to embarrass her like that, no one!**

From her blind spot, a hand grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back.

Her fall was cushioned by another's body and her gun taken swiftly from her.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
Turning about, she found herself in the arms of Ryu.**

"Wha--Just what are you doing!"

Ryu merely pulled the trigger and shot into the sand but a foot in front of her.

The sand stirred, rippling as something emerged from beneath it. Desert scorpions.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
The first fell to its underside within seconds, the shot from Ursula's gun seemingly having killed it.**

Ursula blushed with the close proximity between Ryu's face and hers.

Attempting to right herself, she found herself clumsily trying again and again with Ryu's arm still holding her down.

"Tha--Thats enough! Let go of me! What..."**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
Her voice fell to a whisper as a growing sound, the rustling of sand around them became apparent.**

Ursula stared as another scorpion rose from the dunes of sand, the only difference being their size.

"What...is...that?!"

**~~oOo~~****  
**

**"You guys again.", the blue Manillo seemed almost ready to shoo them off in the knowledge of them not being potential customers.**

"We'd like to buy a sandflier.", Cray simply stated.

"My prices do not fluctuate that fast and even then..." Cray only tossed the passbook into the Manillo's hands.

The Manillo's eyes almost seemed to glint in the dark warehouse he was working in at the sight of the figures within.

* * *

  
**"Thanks for waiting! Here's your very own sandflier!**

I understand that you have previously operated a sandflier. Would you show me your license?"

"Alright.", Cray fished out a laminated card from his pockets.

After clearing all that was to be paid, a very happy Manillo waved his goodbyes to them while they strode off to their sandflier.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
**** "Cray...Weren't you a little harsh to Ursula?"**

Cray looked away from the Wyndian's eyes obviously guilty of the said biased-ness he had against her.

"We aren't criminals...we are wanted, yes, but we don't..." "I...d-did the s-same thing t-too..."

From the other side, the lanky mercenary spoke, his face calm and seemingly, his head in the clouds**,**** with it lifted to the skies.****  
****  
****

* * *

****  
**** "Alright, alright...I'll apologize to her later."**

Cray struggled to return the gratifying smile Nina offered him, managed only a wry one.

"Where is Ryu and Ursula anyway?"

"Ryu went to rescue the maiden in distress, Ursula, that is.", the party stared at the armor who simply shrugged it off.**  
****  
**** ~~oOo~~****  
****  
****"Stand back." Ursula did as she was told, visibly in shock.**

As he chanted, Ryu's sword began to glow as magic riveted around it, encompassing it in a glowing blue light.

Lifting his face to meet his adversary's, Ursula noted one of his cyan eye's pupils turn into slit.

"They who have drank from the dregs of which we Endless have rose from, return to thine place in nature."**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
The scorpion struck as Ryu released the charge from his blade, the force of both crashing against each other.**

Ursula watched, amidst the sand and dust, the claw of the scorpion land crashing in the distance.

The monstrosity let out a blood-curdling screech, its movements now set into a frenzy.

**"Hwa." As did the sand part, an inferno erupted from below the giant scorpion, silencing it with the roar of the rising flames.****  
****  
****

* * *

****  
Ursula felt irritation at herself, time after time, being at the mercy of him...but much more at her own incompetence during such occasions.**

Last be not least, the fact that he even chose to help her, to look out for her.

Shaking off her over-competitiveness, she reasoned to herself...that it was only natural of him, a god.

**"The Endless are summoned to this sphere...they aren't part of it...something which creates surplus in the scales of this world."**

"This changes the very balance of Nature herself, flooding the world with energies both powerful and dangerous, and causes those beings easily influenced by it to change as well..."**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
Ursula could tell, he didn't know that...his other half, the one they mentioned so much, did.**

And he was, despite being a god, a puppet of fate, destined to confront him

. For some reason, she was sorry for him and the burden he had to carry when he was but all that he was.

Noting that she had been staring at Ryu, she consciously avoided meeting their eyes, now feeling uncomfortable with the feelings which accompanied thoughts of him.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
"Ryu! Ursula!" Ursula's eyebrows knitted together as she heard the sweet voice of the princess.**

Her disdain for royalty had came together from many faucets.

With their oppressive behaviour and their obliviousness to the hardships of life having lived in shelter at the cost of many other's basic necessities...and more.

But this time, there was something more she couldn't put her finger on.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
"Are you all fine?" Ryu simply nodded and then look towards Ursula who offered a flat yes.**

The party was awed by 'their' combined efforts being able to bring that monster down...

As she always did, she simply continued to follow him...to what end, she was no longer clear.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
She hoped that the time she would part from him would come soon, any deeper into this affair that concerned her not and she could be dragged into all this together.**

Why was she even considering the possibility that she would be stay by their side?

Looking towards Ryu intently, as if for an answer, she supposed her mixed feelings shown through.

Nina observed Ursula's actions with a strange curiosity, and pondered on whether what she thought was right.**  
****  
****

* * *

****As the discussions settled down, the party made their way to their sandflier.**

The days seem to pass quickly when she travelled with this group.

Day to night, night to day, no matter how tedious, the days were strangely pleasant, a new experience.

And the night has fallen once more, on this strange land she too was unaccustomed to.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
The barren desert shone in the moonlight as the lone sandflier drifted through it endlessly.**

Climbing to the cabin within, Cray looked uncomfortably around before he spoke.

"Hey, you know, about what I said today..."

As Cray apologized towards her, Ursula was keenly listening, to not him, but the conversation between Nina and Ryu.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
"Ryu...shouldn't you catch some shut-eye...?"**

Nina sat beside the blue-haired lad as he watched the moving, yet plain, scenery, its only noteworthy decoration being the crescent moon.

He had no signs of fatigue, yet his heavy-lidded eyes produced an effect that made him seem...so tired.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
"I'm fine.", Ryu's voice was soft...and heavy.**

She noticed how he avert her eyes, how he had always done so when she spoke to him since then.

Nina wasn't the only one who noticed the changes Ryu though, Ursula too, kept her tabs on him.

But she no longer felt that he would escape.**  
****  
****

* * *

****  
It was a queer form of trust, she was trusting someone she was to capture, to not escape.**

All the while, she polished her gun meticulously.

"Is it fine for you to leave him out of your sight?"

The light coming out from Ershin's eyes gave her a distinctive ghost-like feature combined with her quirky look.

Unamused, Ursula continued to watch the lone shadow, which stretched before her, shrouding the white sands.**  
**


End file.
